Abstract
Purpose :
Eye illnesses such as cataract, glaucoma, diabetic retinopathy, and macular degeneration cause suffering and require expensive treatment. Lack of awareness and knowledge on age-related conditions are barriers to diagnose and treat major diseases early on. Millennials as a generation may play a crucial role in improving ocular health status in their communities. This study aims to investigate the level of knowledge, beliefs and attitudes among millennials residing in Canada and Mexico regarding the four most common eye diseases.
Methods :
A 34-item survey was distributed among volunteers born between 1980 and 2000. The survey was devised in Spanish, reviewed for consistency and then translated into English. The English version was also reviewed. Surveys were circulated through a commercially available online tool, then results were collected in an electronic database and statistically analyzed (unpaired t test, chi-square test; P< 0.05).
Results :
From 134 surveys, three were ruled out due to inconsistencies and one more for age exclusion. Sixty eight were responded by Canadians and 62 by Mexicans. Mean age was not significantly different between groups (21.4 ± 4.2 years vs 21.4 ± 4.2 years). Compared to the Canadian respondents, the Mexican group was composed of a larger proportion of females (61.9% vs 60.3%, P< 0.05); showed longer periods of time spent on the internet daily (8.7 ± 4.8 hours vs 6.2 ± 3.2 hours, P< 0.05); a smaller proportion of high school students (27.4% vs 52%, P< 0.05); and a higher rate of recent visits to the ophthalmologist (59.6% vs 13.2%, P< 0.0001). The analyses on awareness rates among both groups for cataract, glaucoma, diabetic retinopathy and age-related maculopathy were only significant with respect to diabetic retinopathy (46.8% vs 27.9%, P=0.02). Furthermore, the knowledge rates regarding these conditions showed significance for glaucoma (33.9% vs 16.2%, P=0.02) and diabetic retinopathy (35.5% vs 13.2%, P< 0.05).
Conclusions :
This study demonstrates the differences between Canadian and Mexican millennials, which determine the levels of awareness and knowledge about relevant age-related conditions that cause visual impairment worldwide. Since this generation has a strong sense of community, recognizing their level of knowledge on health issues affecting vision, could assist on the development of promotional programs to reinforce ocular wellness.
This is an abstract that was submitted for the 2018 ARVO Annual Meeting, held in Honolulu, Hawaii, April 29 - May 3, 2018.